Pennsylvania man gets jail for stripping home before sale

Mercer, Pa. -- Former mortgage broker Scott McCuskey gutted his $1.2 million home before it went up for sheriff's sale in 2006, and now he's going to jail for it.

According to The Herald newspaper, McCuskey admitted in court that he stripped the house of just about everything he could, including lights, window cranks, baseboards, ceiling and window trim -- even vent covers. He took closet shelving, cabinet doors and countertops, tub and shower fixtures. Toilets, sinks, vanities, carpeting. Locks and handles for the outside doors, garage doors, side doors and outside wall fixtures.

But wait, there's more.

McCuskey, 40, also removed the garage windows, a Jacuzzi, benches and everything else that wasn't nailed down. He was convicted of defrauding creditors and fraud in insolvency in April.

"This was stripping a house. This was theft. And you are a common criminal," Judge Thomas R. Dobson reportedly told him. Then he sentenced him to three to 15 months in county jail, and ordered him to pay more than $174,000 in restitution to Sovereign Bank, Reading, Pa., and insurers.

Despite several character witnesses and even a multimedia presentation showing how people commit similar crimes out of ignorance during foreclosure, Dobson didn't buy McCuskey's story that he didn't know it was a crime to strip his house before the sale.

"Unbelieveable. Unbelieveable. Unbelieveable," McCuskey said repeatedly after the sentencing.

McCuskey's home was first appraised at over a million dollars, but after stripping it down, it was reappraised at $180,000.

"It's over a six-figure theft," Dobson said. Normally, sentences would be served in a state prison, but Dobson felt a county sentence was more appropriate. He has a week to get his business affairs in order before he starts serving his sentence.

McCuskey is also required to do 50 hours of community service.